The wolves don't find us.
Stark hears them coming before I do. He lifts me in his arms and carries me deeper into the cave. There's a hidden passage in the back, behind some rocks. We squeeze through just as the wolves reach the entrance.
"I smell blood," one of them says. "Fresh blood."
"Search everywhere," another orders.
We stay completely still in the darkness. Stark's arms are tight around me. His body is tense, ready to fight if they find us.
But they don't. After what feels like forever, they leave.
"That was close," I whisper.
"Too close," Stark agrees. "You can't go back to the pack, not after what he did to you."
"I have to," I say. "If I disappear, they'll search harder. They'll find this cave. They'll find you."
"I don't care about me," he says fiercely. "I care about you being safe."
Warmth spread spread inside me when he say that, I look up, into his beautiful red eye, then I realise he was still holding me.
Instinctively I push him away putting some distance between us.
" I think I need to get stronger" i say trying to avoid the awkward situation.
"you don't have to worry I'm strong enough to protect you." He reply
"You will not always be with me, help me get strong enough to protect myself," I say. "Teach me how to fight."
He looks at me for a long moment. Then nods. "All right. I'll teach you."
Over the next two months, everything changes.
We meet every few nights instead of waiting for the full moon. I tell the pack I'm gathering herbs in the forest, and luckily they agree.
Stark teaches me how to defend myself. How to dodge and strike and move. How to use my size against larger opponents.
"You're smaller than most wolves," he says one night as we practice. "Use that. Be fast. Be smart."
He lunges at me. I duck under his arm and sweep his legs. He goes down hard.
"Good," he says, laughing from the ground. "Very good."
"You let me win," I accuse.
"Maybe," he admits. "But you're getting better. Soon I won't have to let you."
Between training sessions, we talk. About our dreams and fears and all the things we've never told anyone else.
"What do you want?" he asks me one night. "If you could have anything in the world?"
"Freedom," I say immediately. "I want to wake up and not be afraid. I want to make my own choices. I want to be seen as a person instead of trash."
"You'll have that," he promises. "Someday. I'll make sure of it."
"What about you?" I ask. "What do you want?"
"You," he says simply. "Just you. Everything else can burn for all I care."
My heart does that strange fluttering thing it always does when he talks like this.
"That's dramatic," I say.
"I'm a vampire prince," he replies with a grin. "Drama is required."
I trip during training one night and he catches me. We're suddenly very close. His hands are on my waist. My hands are on his chest.
Time stop and everything faded away, only his beautiful fiery eye remain, the eye that draw me in every passing seconds.
Our face keeps inching closer and closer until our lips meet, and I can't pull away again, he taste so good
After that, Every meeting ends with kisses. Soft ones. Desperate ones. Long ones that left me breathless.
"We should stop," I say one night, even as I'm pulling him closer.
"Probably," he agrees, kissing my neck.
"This is dangerous," I remind him.
"I know," he says. "But I don't care."
Neither do I.
Tonight is different.
The full moon hangs huge and bright in the sky. We're at the river like always. But something in the air feels different.
"You're beautiful," Stark says, looking at me in the moonlight.
"You always say that," I reply.
"Because it's always true."
"Or you are just deceiving me"
"At least I'm good at it"
"Humph!! You always have a response" I fold my arm and turn away from him feigning anger.
He snakes his arm around my waist and pull me close, so that my back rest on his strong chest "Dance with me." he whisper directly to my ear.
My face heats up all the way to my neck.
"There's no music," I point out.
"So?" He starts swaying gently, pressing his body close to me from behind. "We don't need music, we will just dance to your heartbeat."
we dance around in a sync, we never pull apart and being this close to him makes me feel safe. It's makes me feel like I belong somewhere.
"Roselyn," he says softly. "I need to tell you something."
"What?" I look up at him.
"I love you," he says. "I know it's forbidden, but I can't help but went to eat the forbidden fruit."
My breath catches. "Stark..."
"You don't have to say it back," he continues quickly. "I just needed you to know. In case something happens. In case we get caught. I needed you to know that loving you has been the best thing I've ever done."
"I-i love you too," I say. "I think I've loved you since that first night at the river."
"Then the feeling is mutual" Stark hand caresses my cheek.
My eyes lock on his, they are drawing me closer to him and I follow. Our lips meet, and we started devouring each other's lips.
He leaves my lips and attack the nape, using his mouth to imprint his mark there, I bite my bottom lips in an attempt to hold it all in, but some silent moans still escape.
His hand find it way to my ass, molding it to several shape he want. I nimble on my lip, I don't know his touch can feel so good.
My hand must have a mind of their own, they found their way to his hard rock dick and I stroke and squeeze it, result in a grunt from him.
we resuming kissing, I try to take off his clothes, while he do the same, in a blink of an eye we are naked in the cave.
I can't help but notice how big he is, I wonder if it's can fit inside my lower lips twitch at that thought.
He close the distance between us and steal my lips with his, not that i complain, I can never get tired of his kisses that keep getting better every passing days.
His hand cup my left breast, while the other moves on my thigh, his hand moves to my entrance.
"You are drenched already Rose"
His hand find my clitoris, sending waves of electric through me, I jerked my head back and moans out, I bite my lower lips trying to hold my moans as his finger moves in and out of my pussy.
But when he double his finger the sensation increases, " fuck " I moan out moving my hip closer to his finger afraid he will pull out.
My moans echoes in the cave, I'm sure people outside will be hearing us.
Suddenly he stop, and my body cries out craving his touch immediately. positioning his cock at my entrance, " are you ready, should I continue" he ask
" Fuck just continue"
"Are you sure?" he asks. "We can stop anytime."
"I'm sure," I say. "I want this. I want you."
Then he enter me slowly.
"Ready it will be painful" he says when he reach my hymen.
I struggle to nod my head.
And he broke the barriers stopping him, it's was painful at first but all the pleasure that comes with it overcome the pain, he wait for some time, before he started moving inside me slowly.
Soon he increase his speed, increase the pleasure along with it, my boobs bounce along with his movement, I grab his head and push his head to my breast, he responds by taking my right nipples in his mouth. I've long give up controlling on my moans.
I can feel something building up in me, and it's about to burst open.
"I'm coming" I shout
He enter me one last time before pumping his warm seed into me. Sending me to the seventh cloud and never returning.
Yes I never return cause everything went red.
The moon above us suddenly turns blood red. Like someone painted it with crimson.
The river water starts to boil. Steam rises from the surface. The sound is deafening.
And inside me, something wakes up.
*"NO!"* A voice roars in my head. Not my voice. Something else. Something powerful.
Pain rips through my entire body. I scream.
"Roselyn!" Stark pulls back, his eyes wide with fear. "What's happening?"
"I don't know!" I gasp. "Something's inside me. Something's waking up."
My body starts to change. Fur sprouts along my arms. My bones crack and reshape. Claws extend from my fingers.
"Your wolf," Stark breathes. "Your wolf is coming."
But it's not a normal awakening. This is violent and painful.
*"VAMPIRE!"* the voice in my head screams. *"KILL THE VAMPIRE!"*
"No!" I cry out. "Cicilia, stop! He's not an enemy!"
But Cicilia doesn't listen. She takes control. My body moves without my permission.
I lunge at Stark. My claws rake across his chest. He stumbles backward, shocked.
"Roselyn, fight it!" he shouts. "Fight her!"
I can't. Cicilia is too strong. She's been sleeping for twenty years and now she's awake and all she knows is that there's a vampire in front of her.
I attack again. This time my teeth sink into his shoulder. I taste metal in my mouth.
Stark's eyes flash red. His fangs extend fully. His vampire nature rises to meet my wolf.
"I'm sorry," he says. And then he fights back.
We clash. Wolf against vampire. Two creatures who are mortal enemies. The fight is brutal and fast.
He throws me into a tree. My ribs crack. But Cicilia doesn't care about pain. She launches at him again.
His hand wraps around my throat. Squeezing it hard that I can't breathe.
For a moment, I see his face. See the horror in his eyes as he realizes what he's doing.
"Roselyn," he gasps. "I'm so sorry. I can't... I can't stop..."
The sky above us fills with dark clouds. Lightning flashes and thunder rumbles.
And somewhere in the distance, I hear screaming. Lots of people are screaming.
The blood moon. The boiling river. The fight between wolf and vampire.
Somewhere, somehow, we've triggered something. Something old and terrible.
Something that was waiting for exactly this moment.
Stark's grip loosens on my throat. We both collapse to the ground, gasping. My wolf forms flickers and fades. I'm human again. Naked and bleeding and terrified.
"What did we do?" I whisper.
Stark is staring at the blood red moon. At the boiling river. At the dark clouds swirling overhead.
"I think," he says slowly, his voice filled with dread, "we just started the end of the world."
And then, from the forest behind us I hear crushing sound of of a footstep, immediately I look in that direction, but it's too late I only saw the fleeing figure of a werewolf, he must have seen us.